SNCF Metal passenger cars from the company of eastern railways Version 1.00 Please read carefully!! Author: BB25187, http://BB25187.eu/ 2010, February 6th

History

Model

Installation

Remarks

Copyrights

Thanks

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History of the project

In the late 20', the french company of eastern railways wished to improve the security of his long range trains. To reach this goal, it was chosen to study a new type of metal passenger cars. The first unist were delivered in 1929, and had two half-windows by compartment, and a limited length of 21,10 meters. They were mounted on Pennsylvania bogies (S1, then S2).

A numerous family of passenger cars was derived from those first units. Although the technics then constantly evolved and despite the high number of diagrams, its aspect remained very homogeneous, thanks to a unified length increased to 23,53 meters. More than 430 units were built between 1929 and 1940. The very last ones could benefit from important lightening, with a mass limited to 40 tons, against more than 50 beforehand.

Carrier

Those cars were first limited to 120 km/h, but fully equipped to be used abroad. Speed was then increased to 130, then 140 km/h. They were widely used during several decades by the company, and were integrated in the stock of the SNCF. They could be found in trains from Paris to Heidelberg, Praha, Innbruck or Wien. After world war II, they were partly refurbished by SNCF, but they continued to be used across Europ.

Due to the global increase of speed limits to 160 km/h, and to the issue of the brand new "corail" family, they were downgraded to natioanl and local services during the early 80's. Thanks to their robustness, they withdrawn in the late 80's.

Bibliography

• La Vie du Rail n°1635, 19 march 1978,
• La Vie du Rail n°1879, 3 février 1983 ,
• Loco-Revue n°448, 4-1983,
• L'Encyclopédie des Voitures SNCF (second edition), Editions: La Vie du Rail.

The model

Content of this pack

This pack contains three cars:

• the second class B11 built in 1934/36, and
• the mixed coach with reclining berths A5/2c5/2B5c5 built in 1937/38
• the first class A8 built in 1931/34..

They are mounted on S2c bogies.

Epochs

The livery and markings correspond to two different epochs:

• the 70's, with UIC markings and RIC authorizaton,
• the 80's, with UIC markings but modified markings for national trafic only.

Variants

Four variants are provided for each car, depending on its position in the consist: head, middle, tail or single car. Thus, 16 .WAG files are provided:

• Cars for the 70's:
  • SNCF_ExpEst_AcBc_Solo.wag: solo car,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_AcBc_Beg.wag: head car,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_AcBc_Mid.wag: middle car, temporary passenger view (first class compartment),
  • SNCF_ExpEst_AcBc_End.wag: tail car, lights, temporary passenger view (second class compartment),
  • SNCF_ExpEst_B11_Solo.wag: solo car,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_B11_Beg.wag: head car,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_B11_Mid.wag: middle car,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_B11_End.wag: tail car, lights,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_A8_Solo.wag: solo car,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_A8_Beg.wag: head car,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_A8_Mid.wag: middle car,
  • SNCF_ExpEst_A8_End.wag: tail car, lights.
• Cars for the 80's:
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_AcBc_Solo.wag: solo car,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_AcBc_Beg.wag: head car,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_AcBc_Mid.wag: middle car, temporary passenger view (first class compartment),
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_AcBc_End.wag: tail car, lights, temporary passenger view (second class compartment),
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_B11_Solo.wag: solo car,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_B11_Beg.wag: head car,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_B11_Mid.wag: middle car,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_B11_End.wag: tail car, lights,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_A8_Solo.wag: solo car,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_A8_Beg.wag: head car,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_A8_Mid.wag: middle car,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_A8_Mid.wag: middle car. Green and light grey livery,
  • SNCF_ExpEstCorail_A8_End.wag: tail car, lights.

Bonus

As a little bonus, I added a AcBc car in blue/grey livery. In reality, this livery was applied to one or two units, with a slightly different body. This car is thus not totally conform. Only a single version is thus available in this pack: SNCF_ExpEstCorailBG_AcBc_Solo.wag.

Destination plates

Several destinations and return are provided. They can be exchanged using the dedicated .BAT files.

The international ones should be preferred for the 70's versions:

• Paris-Heidelberg and return,
• Paris-Innsbruck and return,
• Paris-Karslruhe and return,
• Paris-Koblenz and returnv,
• Paris-Konstanz and returnv,
• Paris-Prague (Praha) and return.

National destinations should be preferred for 80's versions:

• Paris-Metz and return,
• Paris-Bourg St Maurice and return,
• Metz-Strasbourg and return.

Sounds

To ease installation, this pack provided minimal SMS sound files. The corresponding .WAV files are either included in the pack, or taken from the standard MSTS sound files.

About LODs

Only simple LODs are implemented on this Beta version. The polycount at the different LOD is as follows:

• autour de 24000 polys de 0 à 100m,
• autour de 20000 polys de 100 à 250m,
• autour de 12000 polys de 250m à 500m,
• environ 3000 polys de 500m à 1000m.

Thus those cars require important resources. Depending on your configuration, you may have to limit the number of cars in a consist. It is alos recommended not to use them in traffic trains. More aggresive LODs will be added in forthcoming versions, as well as lighter versions for traffic trains.

Furthermore, I strongly recommend to use the dedicated option that increases the memory allocated to MSTS. This holds for standard MSTS and patch users. To do so, you just need to add the -mem:xxx to your MSTS shortcut, where xxx is the half of your RAM capacity.

For instance:

• if your RAM is 2Gbytes, use -mem:1024,
• if your RAM is 1Gbytes, mettre -mem:512.

Installation

The installation is fully automatic.

Remarks and future works

Please note that:

• This version is a Beta one. Some parts are still missing or may need improvements, especially:

  • passenger view is a temporary one. A dedicated 3D model, with more details is to be built,
  • LODs will be improved and a light verison for traffic train will be built,
  • new variants are planned as well, corresponding to the livery used in the 80's.
• In spite of the simple LODs implemented, this version has high polycount.

As a conclusion...

Copyright

• Those cars can be used as freeware. None of the components (3D, textures, sounds, ...) included in this pack can be used for commercial transaction.
• Please do not modify, distribute or reuse any of those components, even partly, without my explicit approval.
• Using this pack in commercial transaction is prohibited!

Contributions and thanks

• I would like to thank the persons below:
  • Pascal/Dragon, for the authorization to use and distribute his brake sound,
  • Philippe for his precious documents,
  • Christian, alias Kriss44 who was my TSM teacher,
  • Peter Hanslip who gave me the information about PolyMaster that can make such a model working in MSTS,
  • Hervé, Philippe, Pascal, for the test of the vehicles.

Contact

Website: http://BB25187.eu, personal messages on the following forums: ASW.